New Delhi: In the last two years, the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has removed important subjects like climate change and monsoon from the syllabus to reduce the study load on the students in the wake of COVID. A group of college and university teachers fighting climate change has made this claim.
According to officials, NCERT has reduced the syllabus for classes VI to XII with the aim of reducing the study burden on the students in view of the closure of schools due to the coronavirus pandemic. He told that in this academic session the syllabus has been reduced by about 30 percent.
Teachers Against the Climate Crisis (TACC) claimed that the NCERT has removed the entire chapter related to the effect of greenhouse gases from the subject Geography of class 11, while the chapter on weather, climate and water from the class 7 syllabus and The chapter related to monsoon has been removed from class 9th.
He demanded that NCERT restore these chapters and that the topic of climate crisis should be taught in schools in all languages.
TACC said, ‘The COVID-19 epidemic has severely disrupted the regular program of education across the country. It is understandable that NCERT has tried to reduce the burden of the students by removing repetitive material or material that is irrelevant in the current context.
TACC founding member Nagraj Adve said that it is strange that NCERT decided to remove material related to environment from the school curriculum, where the youth are the first to become aware of these issues and develop an understanding about them.
According to news agency PTI, the TACC demanded that the NCERT chapters be reinstated and various aspects of climate crisis should be taught to all senior school students in all languages and in different subjects.
TACC said, ‘The COVID-19 pandemic has caused massive disruption in the regular learning program across the country. It is understandable that NCERT wants to curate the material to reduce the workload of the students. However, none of these concerns apply to fundamental issues like climate change science, Indian monsoon and other chapters.
Teachers said that it is extremely important that senior school students across India are made aware of the gist of such updated information in an accessible and easy-to-understand manner.
Nagraj Adve said, ‘Educating about how climate change interacts with our environment and society in many ways is important in terms of changing weather systems, monsoon patterns.’
The group said students need to understand the complexity of the climate crisis if they are to respond and engage intelligently with it. In recent years this engagement has usually begun in classrooms, so it is essential that schools continue to provide students with information about climate change and related issues that is accurate, rational and relevant.
(with input from news agency language)
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